Boxes in the Sky
by Digiton
Summary: Set after the events of Humanoid, Chell, GLaDOS, along with loads of other people set up base in the endless vacuum of space. Now, it's their job to live out their endless, android lives up in the sky. ChellDOS, rated T to be safe.
1. Chapter 1, New Aperture

**[A/N]**

 **Hi there! This is my second ever Fanfic, and the reason I'm saying this is because this is a direct sequel to my first. Some things might not make** ** _any_** **sense at all, without having read** ** _Humanoid._**

 **Reviews are** ** _greatly_** **appreciated, and enjoy this first chapter!**

* * *

It was Monday morning. She was proud to think that. Before, she was never shown any evidence of morning. She could wake up in the middle of the night and still think it's morning.

That was different, now.

She was in her new bedroom, up in space. It had taken a long while before she really got used to that idea. It was easy to come to terms with the fact that your home is miles underground, it was still on Earth, after all.

But to live in _space?_ That was a whole different approach. It had taken a lot of talks with GLaDOS to convince herself that, no, she won't go crash-landing back down to Earth.

And it wasn't like she was in a giant, well-equiped space ship, oh no. She was in a little shipping-container sized box, separate from all the rest. That's how it worked here, in the Aperture Science Sky Facility; boxes, upon boxes, upon boxes. None attached, all of them floating freely.

At first, it wasn't very uncommon that two chambers would crash into each other. She remembered how loads of them broke because of that. There was even one to almost fall back down to Earth; she ended up saving the day with her Matter Manipulator device, teleporting it _right_ back up.

She remembered everyone celebrating that night, ( _night,_ they had nights now!) lots of people cheering, and some even dancing. Not GLaDOS, though. She was just, in her respective chamber, working on a way to fix it.

Not more than a week later, all of the chambers came equipped with suitably sized rocket thrusters, along with motion detectors to trigger them. Pretty simple, really.

Well, it was now, anyways. In her Human form, she would never have cared about any of that stuff. As long as it worked, she would be happy with it. Now that she was part of the Humanoid, that was different. She could download schematics of anything in the Sky Facility, and understand it fully, without even trying.

It had taken months for her to fully get used to the fact that she somehow spoke binary, now. That was pretty funny, now that she looked back at it. Her natural language processor wasn't working properly, and she ended up actually speaking in ones and zeros for half the day, until GLaDOS got it up and working again.

She was pretty sure that was just an elaborate prank, but the AI kept denying it. Today, though, she was going to prank her back, regardless.

She got out of bed, and almost walked out the door. The girl turned red at the fact that she almost walked straight out of the airlock, not wearing anything. She still wasn't used to the fact that she had an internal heater, so she couldn't really tell if she was wearing clothes, or not.

After putting on a blue jumpsuit, which was the standard in the new facility, she pushed the button to open the airlock. The first door opened. She stepped in, and the door sealed behind her.

On the ceiling above her, was an excursion funnel emitter, third generation. She stepped under it, and it immediately turned on. The light was quickly snapping between blue and orange, or push- and pull mode, so that she was suspended in a sort of hover-state.

 _"_ _Destination?"_

The overly-cheery voice of the announcer sounded over a speaker inside the emitter, so that it could be heard, even when inside the funnel.

"Central AI Chamber." The former test subject answered.

The big vault door in front of her opened, and the excursion funnel emitter moved forward to peek out of the opening. It then rotated towards the big, Central AI Chamber, and turned blue.

These excursion funnels moved considerably faster than the ones she encountered in the test chambers, and were only suitable for transport. Every box, or chamber was equipped with an transporter like this, but a few people were still very anxious about using them.

It is quite a weird sensation, being suspended by a translucent beam, right above the Earth. She used to have nightmares about them failing. Pretty much everybody did, at first.

When the former test subject arrived through the airlock, she looked around for a bit. Nobody there. As usual, GLaDOS was in her manufacturing workshop, probably tinkering with the android fuelling systems again.

She was determined to remove the breathing mechanism from all androids. She hadn't found a suitable solution yet, many of them required regular recharges, which no one liked to do.

She walked down the steps, and with a simple thought, raised the receptacle. The former test subject connected herself to it, something that seemed like a taboo all those months ago, and prepared to transfer herself into GLaDOS' chassis.

 _/Unrecognised Source./_

The words appeared in her mind, through the receptacle. Looks like the AI has protected it. Everyone knows you can't change your designated serial number, which indicated to the interfaces who you were. Only someone with the serial number zero could enter the chassis, Zero being GLaDOS herself.

She'd have to find another way of pranking her, then.

 _"_ _What are you doing here?"_

The android came into the chamber through the airlock.

"Nothing. I just woke up, and came looking for you, why?" That was a lie. She knew where the AI was.

 _"_ _That's weird…"_ The android responded, with mock confusion. _"I got a message that_ someone _tried to log in to_ my _chassis. Now, who could that be?"_

The other android began to chuckle. "Alright, you got me."


	2. Chapter 2, Helping Out

**[A/N]**

 **EDIT: Apparently, the first time I uploaded this chapter, it corrupted. I missed that, then. Here it is!**

* * *

 **Alright, for the current readers, I would like to ask something; should everyone refer to each other by their names? In Portal 2, no AI refer to any other person by their name, and I have made sure to keep that theme in Humanoid. Now, however, with lots of other characters involved, this will be nearly impossible.**

 **So, will Chell and GLaDOS and the whole bunch start referring to each other by name? Your choice!**

 **Anywyay, reviews are _greatly_ appreciated, and enjoy the chapter!**

* * *

"Alright, you got me."

 _"As always."_

"Just you wait! You got something coming someday!"

The AI chuckled. _"Sure."_

"Now how's the breathing project holding up?"

 _"Speaking of that, I need someone to test it on."_

The girl paused. "Okay, but I do have my rules."

 _"What rules?"_

"Make sure my chest doesn't explode again."

 _"I'll try to keep the chances as low as possible."_

The former test subject shrugged. "Good enough for me."

Just when they started to make their way into the airlock, another one opened on the other side of the room, revealing Wheatley. He got his very own android body just a few weeks ago. He was the last person the get one, in fact; GLaDOS simply didn't trust him with hands.

"Oh! Hey! There you are! You see, I was wondering where you went, couldn't find you anywhere!"

"Sorry, I was still in bed."

"Oh. Ah, I see. Erm, where are you going?"

 _"To the workshop."_

"Right, still working on the breathing problem, right? Well, I can't, really, I don't see how that's a _problem,_ necessarily, but, that's, that's fine, not, judging, you, or anything, it's just-"

GLaDOS let out an annoyed sigh.

"Oh, erm, right. Can I come with you? By any chance?."

"Sure, go ahead!" The girl said, before the other android could even open her synthetic mouth.

"Yay, right, coming!"

His android form was tall, and lanky, and not only that, he still wasn't used to walking all that much, let along running. So when he took a sprint across, the room, you can guess what happened.

Chell came running towards him, who now seemed as though he was very interested in tasting the floor panels.

"Are you alright?"

The android let out a groan. "It's okay, I, erm, I have experience with this, as it were."

"Right." She held her hand forward, and helped him get up, which almost made her fall. He dusted himself off, and looked up at the airlock, in which GLaDOS stood, a second ago.

It was closed. Typical.

"Oh. It's closed."

"Doesn't matter, we'll go through another one."

They went inside the one on the right side of the room, and soon were inside a funnel together. Wheatley liked to travel with someone else, it made him feel less alone. When he went in one, all alone, he felt like the only person in the universe. It reminded him of being a core, confined to his rail, all alone after GLaDOS was shut off.

They arrived in the manufacturing workshop. The workshop consisted of many tables, filled with all kinds of experimental machinery. Above one of them, a ceiling-mounted laser-cutter hung.

The floor was dark gray, just like in the Central AI Chamber, but unlike it, the walls and ceilings were white. Everything was clean, and spotless, just like the rest of Aperture. She really knocked herself out with this one.

When the door opened, the AI was already waiting for them, test dummy in hand. When Wheatley saw it, though, he froze in his tracks.

"Oh no! nonononono! Please! I don't want to get back in that thing!"

At first, GLaDOS had done all of her tests on Wheatley. She uploaded him into the dummy, which then had the experimental hardware installed, and then ran a few tests.

After seeing what GLaDOS did to him pretty much on a daily basis, Chell then forbid her from forcing him to carry out the tests unvolentarily.

"It's okay, I'm going to be the Guinea pig this time."

The pair walked towards the receptacle. There were two ports on either side, for a means of easy personality transfer. GLaDOS connected the pale, metal dummy to one side of the receptacle, and the girl plugged herself into the other.

"Transferring now."

Chell's icy blue optics faded out, and reappeared on the test dummy's pale face. Wheatley quickly went over to catch Chell's now limp body, and carefully set it down.

"Thank you." The dummy's voice was… basic, and monotone. It wasn't nearly as fluid as normal human speech, even when compared to GLaDOS'.

"Erm… no problem."

 _"I have installed two experimental generators. How are the temperatures?"_

"They are quickly rising. Is that normal?"

 _"It should stay below the given temperature, give it some time."_

Silence.

"It has overheated! Quick, transfer me back, before-"

Sparks came flying of the test dummy, as one of the generators blew. The other one followed a second after, and the dummy shut down.

"Oh no! Nononoo! Is.. Is she…?"

 _"Of course not, moron. Now help me plug her in."_

"…Okay!"

After plugging the dummy back into the receptacle, the transfer reverted itself. The eyes of Chell's designated android faded back on.

"What happened?" She immediately queried.

 _"It exploded, evidently."_ The AI pointed to the dummy behind her, now in pieces.

"How? What went wrong?"

 _"I don't know. I'll have to find out."_

"Can I help?"

 _"If you can keep up."_

"Don't doubt it."

"And me?" Wheatley chimed in.

 _"No thanks."_

"…Okay. I'll be at the arcade, then. Good luck, with, the generators, or something."

"Bye!"

And with that, he stepped into the airlock, only tripping once, this time.

The android immediately walked over to one of the workbenches. She grabbed a generator, the same one that had exploded, and showed it to Chell.

 _"This is the generator I just tested."_

"Right. Can I have the templates?"

 _"I'm sending them now."_

She grabbed the little round generator out of her hands, studying it.

"Where is the regulator?"

 _"It's in the center of it. There wasn't much room left."_

"Right. Oh! I just received the templates. Hold on."

Her optic decreased in brightness, indicating she wasn't looking through them anymore.

"…I think I got it."

 _"If you're thinking of the coolant system, I tested it, it works."_

"No, that's not it. The regulator reacts to the temperature, right?"

 _"Yes, that's its most basic function, but do go on."_

"Look at the templates, it's next to both the coolant system _and_ the combustion chamber, where the heat comes from. They cancel each other out; and thus the coolant system doesn't react."

 _"That… makes a surprising amount of sense."_

"Yes! Good luck with the generator, I'm going to get to the arcade, too."

 _"Are you seriously going to join that moron?"_

"Yes. Whether you like it or not. He might not be the smartest, but he certainly _is_ nice. See you around, then!"

 _"Yes, goodbye."_ The android responded, uninterested.

Why did such a genius like that hang out with him?


	3. Chapter 3, Activities

It did seem weird, for a nearly omnipotent AI to whip up an _arcade,_ of all things. But, since there were no particular jobs to apply to, she had to keep everyone busy in _some_ way; especially since everyone's going to live forever anyway.

The girl was at the arcade, standing next to Wheatley, who was currently fiddling around with a shooter game.

"What? What is that? No, that can't be… how did that beat me? What…?"

It was… amusing, to see him trying and failing, over and over again, not having a clue what's happening. If it wasn't for his seemingly endless supply of optimism, he'd probably have given up long ago.

On the big monitor in front of him, big letters flashed.

 **Game Over. Better luck next time. Moron.**

The former test subject chuckled. She imagined GLaDOS in her chamber, hacking into the game machine, laughing away to herself.

A male voice, behind them, was laughing, too.

"Oh, that's awesome. Classic."

The pair turned around, almost at the same time. It was Nick, who just happened to look at the screen at just the right time. He was one of the unlucky people who got stuck in suspension. After the robots from Cooperative found them GLaDOS created an android body for each and all of them, and now, they made up the majority of the population on New Aperture.

"What? How is she doing that? She can't be doing that, can she? And, erm, actually, can you stop laughing, there? It's… annoying. Alright?"

"Sorry, Wheatley." Nick responded. "It's just… it's just too funny!" he almost spilled his drink, flapping his hands about. "It's, sorry, I'll leave you alone, I'll go stand somewhere else. Have a good time!"

The girl could then hear him telling other people what happened, starting a whole laughing fest. She just ignored it, and Wheatley seemed to agree.

"Can I have a go?" She said.

"Erm, sure, I don't seem to be getting much luck, with this, here. Go ahead." He stood up from his chair, and the former test subject sat down. When the game requested a nickname, she simply typed in 'He's not a moron', and waited.

"What- that's, erm, that's a weird name, peculiar, as it were. I'm- I'm not judging you, by the way, just thought I'd mention that, but-"

The screen flickered for a while, before returning to a feed of the android sitting in a chair, grimacing.

 _"_ _Sure. Convince yourself of that all you like, he'll always stay a moron."_

The girl rolled her chair back in accomplishment.

"You go convince yourself that he is! He went through the trouble of waking _me_ up, which proved to be a _very_ important milestone in the history of us Humanoid. See? He's pretty much the most important person in our society!"

The grimace suddenly disappeared off the pale android's face, and the feed cut off after that. She held up her hand in a high five, which, after a brief explanation, was returned by Wheatley.

"Wow. I cannot believe you just did that. You silenced her! How did you do that?"

"It just… happened." She shrugged.

"…Bloody amazing." He muttered. "You know what? Let's try another machine, I don't seem to be able to win this."

"Sure. You can pick one, do you want a drink?"

"Yeah, that would be nice. Oh! I just got an idea!" Wheatley said, excitedly, getting up from his chair. "I've always wanted to try tea! I dunno, I've always just had this… weird, _craving_ for tea, when I was, a, umm, core. Do you mind getting me one of those?"

"Sure, no problem."

She started heading towards the bar, and Wheatley started playing another game. She could hear him struggling in the background, which made her chuckle.

"Man, how do people _play_ this stuff? This is supposed to be fun, isn't it? Then why is it so hard, for god's…"

Maybe this was why GLaDOS enjoyed watching people suffer.

(STRAIGHT LINE)

They were at a table. Wheatley was done playing for a while, he kept losing to the computer. He'd try again tomorrow, though. Optimism. In front of him, was a nice, hot cup of tea.

He tried to drink it immediately after it arrived, but he quickly learned to do otherwise. Chell just laughed. She enjoyed listening to him ramble, sometimes. He wasn't talking about anything in particular, just jumping from one topic to the next.

His strong, British accent just made it nice to listen to. She just sat there, listening, sipping from her coffee ever now and then, completely silent. When he wasn't focusing on anything else, it really was impossible for anyone to shoehorn a word in between, he just kept on talking.

"…and, I, just lost track of time, one day, ended up getting fired. Narcissism. Actually, speaking of losing track of time, I, erm, I gotta go, now, if you don't mind…"

"No, it's okay. Go, do whatever you need to do, I guess."

"Aaaalright, right, I, erm- see you… tomorrow? Is that- is that, okay, with-"

"Yeah, sure." She cut him off, foreseeing a five minute long one-sided conversation. He _was_ just being nice, she knew, but, sometimes, he really talked too much for his own good.

"Erm, okay! I better get going, then." He stood up, and promptly left, leaving his unfinished cup of tea behind.

She just sat there, for a while, finishing up her coffee, watching people fiddle around with the game machines. After emptying her cup, she stood up, and left the airlock.


	4. Chapter 4, The Blast

**[A/N]**

 **Relatively, it's been a while since I've posted another chapter. That's why the chapter below, is an extra long one!**

 **Reviews are greatly appreciated, and enjoy the chapter!**

* * *

 **Destination?**

The query took her by surprise. Where _did_ she want to go? After a few nanoseconds of thinking, she decided to go visit some friends.

"Atlas and P-body's."

The beam activated. She hadn't been there for a while, she might as well check up on them, now. They lived in the same 'apartment'. The two had done so much together already, they just couldn't be separated.

The girl remembered when they'd first gotten their proper android bodies. It was fun to see them just staring at each other, not knowing what to do next. They still tested every now and again. They would be put in their original, expendable forms.

Atlas, or Blue, as GLaDOS preferred to call him, seemed to prefer P-body's old body.

Their first attempt at speech was funny, too. They talked like toddlers, for a while. But, their ability to learn quickly proved useful, as they picked up regular speech surprisingly quickly.

Despite that, they still sometimes chirped to each other, when they were angry, or just wanted to say something privately. GLaDOS would often be on the other side of the room, laughing. She was the only other one to understand them, after all.

"Hello?"

She quickly snapped out of her dreamy state, and refocused. She was at their front door now, with Blue standing in the doorframe.

"Hi, can I come in?"

Blue stepped back, allowing her to get in.

Soon after, she found herself on the couch, with Orange and Blue around her. They liked to just talk together, even when they didn't have anything in particular to talk about.

The only difference compared to Wheatley here, was that she actually got to talk back.

They just had conversations about what happened last week, Orange occasionally chirping to Blue. Their sense of humor was… original, and was actually really funny, once you came to appreciate it.

They had developed a slightly dark sense of humor, after being stuck with GLaDOS for god-knows how long.

They still liked to cook, especially Orange, and thus, every time she visited, they always somehow managed to put a loaf of bread on the table. She had baked a cake with them, once. Ended up being quite a disaster, but they intended to try again someday.

When they finished talking, and the loaf of bread, Chell left, and was once again faced with the question; where to go next? She decided to get to the Central AI Chamber, in the hopes that she could go testing.

It was weird how testing suddenly became fun, after the recent changes. Chell, along with some other testing fanatics kind of revolted against the testing principles. After having a few coffees, discussing all kinds of things for at least two hours, she and GLaDOS came up with a solution that would work for both parties.

GLaDOS changed the turret templates, so that they came equipped with paintballs instead of bullets. This eventually lead to paintball battles, with people grabbing turrets with their portal guns, and using them to shoot.

Honestly; portal paintball was the most fun thing she ever did, and many people agreed.

She now found herself in front of the airlock door, on the west side of the chamber, which suddenly opened. The girl looked into the chamber, and saw GLaDOS, in her chassis, looking at her.

 _"_ _What is it?"_

"I'd like to test."

 _"_ _Sure. Just don't turn it into a paintball fight again."_

"No, I'll be testing on my own, this time."

 _"_ _The same goes for the cameras. They're not well-equipped against paint."_

"I'll _try_ not to splatter paint all over them."

 _"_ _Good."_

The airlock door behind her opened back up.

 _"_ _This will transport you to the test chamber. You'll get a Portal Device when you're there."_

"Alright."

With that, the former test subject- well, test subject, now, stepped into the beam, and got carried away, into the test chamber.

The designs of the test chambers had changed, too. Instead of the usual elevator taking you wherever, there was one excursion funnel, infused with oxygen, just like the transport beams. GLaDOS would change their polarity depending on where you wanted to go.

The transport funnel carried her into the vertical one, causing her to flow upwards into the test chamber. The monitors around her now showed an animation about the Matter Manipulator Device, which made her chuckle.

The girl walked up the stairs, and out the circular door.

 _"_ _Well, let's see what this next test is. Oh, advanced areal faith plates. In low gravity."_ Suddenly, the test subject began floating, slightly. _"Good luck."_

As any other person, she tried jumping upward, only to realize that she _did,_ come back down again, just slower. Well, she did say _low_ gravity, after all.

She grabbed the portal gun off its pedestal, and stepped on the faith plate in front of her. Apparently, it wasn't calibrated to low gravity, as the girl smashed straight into the ceiling when she did.

She'd tried to catch herself with her hands, and ended up pointing the portal gun straight up at the ceiling. What happened next, she couldn't quite describe.

She felt her portal device burst open, revealing a dark, black orb. She'd seen space, which was, in Wheatley's words, the definition of dark, but this was different. It's like there was no light at all.

In that split second that she saw it, she remembered something. Back before, in her human era, she saw a portal device being assembled. She remembered the big devices compacting a black hole, and cramming it into something the size of a ping-pong ball.

And then it exploded. She knew everything there is to know about the portal gun, so she should've seen it coming. Whenever one breaks, it automatically neutralizes the black hole, in order to prevent further damage.

She was blasted across the room, creating cracks in the bright white panels behind her. Broken bits and pieces of the portal gun she'd held in her hand not a second ago, all floating across the room.

 _/Shutdown_Imminent/_

And the world around her went black.


	5. Chapter 5, New Energy

**[A/N]**

 **Well. A decidedly long chapter has emerged. Huh, I feel like this story is harder to write, but at the same time I can't bring myself to stop writing it for some reason.**

 **Oh well, mental issues aside, reviews are** ** _greatly_** **appreciated, and enjoy the chapter!**

* * *

 _/Reboot/_

 _/Please wait…/_

The girl slowly opened her eyes. She found herself in a transport funnel, heading towards the Central AI Chamber.

"What…?"

 _"_ _Oh good, you're awake."_

 _/Recalibration_Iniated/_

She looked up. GLaDOS, now in her android form, was holding her with a tight grip. She felt her breathing harder, and more frequently than usual. Either she's been powering up cars again, or… she was genuinely worried.

 _/Diagnostic(Fast)_Initated/_

She wanted to move out of the android's grip, but she couldn't, because of the recalibration she was running.

"What happened?"

Her speech was slow, and quiet. Whatever happened, it must've damaged something.

 _/Diagnostic_Results:/_

 _/Damage:[Limb-Arm-Left]/_

The pair were almost at the Central AI Chamber's airlock, now.

"I've been damaged."

 _"_ _Oh really? Seriously now, what makes you think I didn't notice your blown off left arm?"_

"Okay, the weird thing is what caused it."

 _"_ _Send the report."_

 _/Sending:/_

 _/Damage:[Limb-Arm-Left]/_

 _/Cause:[Power_Overload]/_

 _"…_ _How did that happen?"_

The android stepped out of the beam as they arrived, and walked into the Chamber.

"Could you just fix it first? My nervous system is coming back online, and I _really_ don't want to feel this!"

 _"_ _I'm sending in a repair unit now."_

One of the circular units on the floor opened up, and elevator frames raised from the floor. Instead of a normal lift, an assembly unit, much like the ones used for Orange and Blue in testing, descended from the ceiling.

The AI carried Chell into it, and the management arms on the side of the repair unit held her upright. GLaDOS sat down on a panel, and watched as Chell's shoulder opened up.

A pale, white arm was bolted into place on the test subjects shoulder socket, and the girl was released soon after. She stared at it in confusion.

"Um. This is not the right arm."

 _"_ _It's a temporary fix. Manufacturing one specifically for you takes time, and I presumed you wouldn't find it worth the wait."_

"Okay, that makes sense. But that crash report is bugging me, where did all that power come from?"

 _"_ _Well, presumably, it came from your exploding Hand-Held Portal Device."_

"Hold on; do you mean that that black hole thing the size of a ping-pong ball generated _that_ amount of electricity?"

 _"…_ _We might have just discovered a new type of power."_

* * *

"Why are we here again?"

The AI was walking around the manufacturing district of new Aperture, with the girl following her.

 _"_ _In the Portal Device Manufacturing section, we create and compact black holes, which we then stuff into the Portal Devices. We're here to take one from the assembly line."_

"Alright, then how are we going to carry a black hole around with us? In your pocket?"

At this, the yellow-eyed android stopped and turned to face the test subject.

 _"_ _Don't be ridiculous. We're going to put it in an Aperture Science Black Hole Containment Chamber,_ then _put it in my pocket."_

"Containment Chamber?" The girl asked, confused.

 _"_ _It's the official name of the tube connector in the Portal Device. Try to keep up."_ And she resumed walking.

After a while, they encountered an airlock chamber, with bold, yellow letters above it.

 **Portal Device Manufacturing**

 _"_ _Bingo."_

The pair stepped into it, and got carried away by the beam inside. When they arrived, the android didn't waste time and immediately resumed walking. When the light on the vault door turned green, granting them access and opening, the android stopped in her tracks, resulting in the test subject bumping into her.

In the rather large, spherical room ran a catwalk, in a circle alongside the walls. There were eight large machines positioned in equidistance around the center of the room. And right there, in the center; a black hole.

The large machines were emitting blue funnels, much like the transport funnels, but a different pattern, and at a much faster speed.

"Could you… get out of the way now?"

She stepped aside, not saying a word.

"What is it?"

 _"_ _It's just… I've seen it on the blueprints, but I've never witnessed a black hole this close up."_

"…Yeah, it had the same effect on me. But for now, let's get out of here, it'll probably start compacting soo-"

 **Warning: Black hole compacting sequence initiated. Please exit the Black hole compaction chamber.**

As the announcer spoke, alarms began blaring, and dramatic spinning lights turned on.

"That's what I mean." And the two began running for the exit on the other side of the room. When they reached the vault door, which promptly sealed itself behind them.

They were now in a long hallway, with rows of doors on either side.

"Come on, I want to show you something."

The test subject walked towards the normal-looking door on their left. Now it was GLaDOS' turn to follow. They stepped inside a sort of observation room, much like the ones in the test chambers.

On their right was a large pin-up-board, with all kinds of notes and notices strapped onto it, along with a voucher; volunteer for testing _today!_

On their left, a big observation window, with a desk and chair in front. Straight ahead, pinned up on the wall, was a large poster of a Portal Gun Blueprint, showing the exact location of the miniature black hole, amongst other things.

"Out the window, the black hole is being compacted, see?"

The android watched as the blue funnels emitting from the eight machines inside the spherical room turned orange, and the black hole slowly shrunk. She just watched in awe as the mighty black sphere got compacted down to ping-pong-ball size.

Rails came down from the ceiling, much like the management rails, but vertical, and robotic arms rode along down them. Black and white parts came carried down via tubes, and got assembled into a portal gun around the now tiny black hole.

The newly made portal gun then got carried down into the floor, and into another vacuum tube.

 _"_ _I never had cameras here. I could watch this all day."_

"I know, me too. But we have other things to handle, come on."

The girl grabbed the other android by the wrist, and started tugging her out the observation room. And, just as she speculated, the newly created portal gun was being checked in the next room over.

It was a relatively big chamber, especially since it was made to evaluate a pretty small device.

Just like the turret manufacturing line, there was a slow conveyor belt travelling across the room, the new portal gun making its way along. There was a catwalk going alongside it, with an incinerator on the other side of it, a few feet ahead.

A brand-new looking portal gun sat encased above the line, with a scanner hung underneath it. Again, just like in the turret manufacturing line, it worked using the template.

What caught the girl's attention, though, was a big, red, oh-so inviting button. Without even attempting to figure out what it's actually supposed to do, she ran over to it, and pressed it without further hesitation.

 _"_ _Don't! You have no idea what that button-"_

 **Manual ejection initiated.**

 _"…_ _Oh."_

The portal gun was launched, over the test subject's head, into the incinerator.

GLaDOS clicked open the springs in her legs, and jumped over to it, and caught it in mid-air. She twisted to face the girl, and gracefully landed behind her. She slid along the catwalk for a couple inches, then came to a halt.

 _"_ _There. Thanks for warning me, by the way. Remember when I told you_ not _to destroy vital testing apparatus?"_

"Stop it, just take the containment tube out, and we can leave."

The android's arm opened up, and Chell had to fight the urge to call her a Swiss army knife again. She disassembled the hand-held with care, and eventually pulled out a little translucent tube.

 _"_ _There."_ She said, gleefully, and stuffed the little tube into her white lab coat's top inner pocket. She then proceeded to dump all the leftover pieces of the portal gun into the incenator.

 _"_ _Now that that's finished, let's get back."_


	6. Chapter 6, Accidents

**_[Double A/N]_**

 ** _Apparently the chapter got 'corrupted' the first time I uploaded it, I'll do my best to prevent it from happening in the future._**

 **[A/N]**

 **And I'm back!**

 **Alright, before the chapter starts, I'd like to point out that I might not be uploading at the normal rate in the next few weeks. Summer (at least where I am) will be over in more or less two weeks, and I'll be going back to being stuck in school, so I won't be able to write nearly as frequently.**

 **Well, summer can't last forever, so I'll just enjoy it while it lasts. Reviews are (still) _greatly_ appreciated, and enjoy the chapter!**

(STRAIGHT LINE)

The pair were in a transport funnel, on their way to GLaDOS' beloved workshop.

"…When am I going to get my arm back? I don't really like this white one."

The android gave her a look, roughly translating to _'seriously?',_ and raised her left arm.

"No offense."

 _"It's still in manufacturing. Customized parts take a while to create."_

"Right."

They stepped out of the beam, and into the airlock leading into the workshop.

"What are we going to do with the black hole… in your pocket. Still can't wrap my head around that one."

 _"You have carried portal devices in the past."_

"I don't know, it's just a bit weird. But what are you going to do with it?"

 _"I need to find a way to make this a stable source of energy. Any ideas?"_

The girl shrugged. "I'll leave that up to you, you're the big brainbox here, after all."

 _"I'm GLaD you noticed."_

The test subject just chuckled, and walked back out the airlock.

"Good luck."

 _"Won't need it."_

She pressed the button to close the door, which sealed behind her with a _hiss._

(STRAIGHT LINE)

"So, how's the tea?"

Chell, accompanied by Wheatley were sitting at a table, near the arcade machines. Of the whole entertainment district of New Aperture, she'd always find him near the game machines, trying his luck.

He might be a moron, so be it, but that didn't stop him from trying, no, not by a long shot. One would say he, too, was stubborn, just like Chell, but in a different way. He was _quite_ the optimist, so he kept on trying. Maybe one day he'd win, and that's exactly what he was going for.

"Um, it's, it's good. Really, quite good, actually, you should try it! I dunno, maybe it's because of my, my _English_ roots, or… well, the closest thing to 'roots' as a, a _machine_ could get, really, and-"

Wheatley's ability to chatter on and on about nothing and everything practically at the same time was his greatest ability. Him being turned from a helpless little sphere into a big old android body only added onto that ability; further expressing himself by almost randomly flapping his hands about. This, combined with his classic clumsy self, almost automatically ended in things tipping over.

This time was no exception, as he unconsciously spilled his boiling hot cup of tea, for the fourth time that day.

"Aah!"

He quickly tried to get up, as the steaming hot liquid was now all over his lap, resulting in him banging his right knee on the table. He tried to twist away, both his wrist and his head colliding with the chair in the process, shoving it away, and ultimately leaving him to fall promptly on the floor.

No one else seemed to be bothered by the situation; it was all mundane business to them, it never failed to happen, every day. Some laughed at him, at first, but they all stopped caring at some point.

Chell, on the other hand, was quick to get up and jump towards him on the other side of the table.

"Are you okay?"

She had a hard time not giggling at his clumsiness, but tried her earnest not to let him notice.

"Yeah, I'm okay, just a bit of a fall, there, nothing, nothing _too_ painful. I mean, I've done worse."

He wasn't lying; he _had_ done worse. He once climbed atop of the vending machine on a dare. The vending machine tried to shoo him off, which, honestly, _was_ quite the sight, and he then, as usual, fell right off of it.

Chell stuck her hand out, trying to help him up. After a few seconds of confused staring, followed by a small moment of realization, he was hurled back onto his feet.

"Er, right, I'm going to, get another tea, then. I'll be _right_ back, alright?"

Without waiting for an answer, he turned around, and started wrestling his way through the crowd of people, bumping into practically every single one of them in the process.

And the girl was left alone with her thoughts again. She just stared onto the table, where her hands were sprawled in front of her, studying her temporary white arm.

It was… basic, as one would expect. No birth marks, no scars, nor hair. It did have some small grooves in it, presumably detachable parts. They were cheap and nasty things, anyway. Not exactly reliable, either; she kept missing the airlock button, making for some _pretty_ awkward moments.

She just sat there, staring emptily at nothing in particular, until her pale replacement arm started buzzing. Her eyes snapped wide open, surprised. One of the grooves lit up, making a sort of rectangular shape. The newly revealed panel the slid up, and out of the way, revealing a little screen.

She'd seen GLaDOS' android body doing this on occasion, as well as some others. Like many, she just preferred an external phone for communicating purposes; it just felt natural to her.

So when her arms slid open and GLaDOS' face showed up, she was… confused, to say the least.

 _"Get over here. I need your help. Don't ask why."_

The expression on the android's face was, as usual blank. Behind her, though, on a table, was something small, whirring and buzzing about. Violently. It quickly fell off the table, and out of sight.

"Well, why?"

 _"Just get over here."_

"Right. Also, when's my _normal_ arm ready? I'm honestly creeped out by this screen in my arm."

The yellow light of the android's eyes faded for a second, then restored.

 _"It's on its way."_

"Great, I'll be there soon then."

 _"Really?"_

"How do I end the call? I'm still confused."

 _"I'll do it for you. As usual."_

And with that, the call ended, and the little panel shoved back into place.

"Oi! Hallo! Did I miss anything?"

Wheatley came shoving out of the crowd, struggling to keep his cup of tea upright. When he somehow made it to the table without tripping, he quickly put it onto the table, preventing any further accidents.

"Yes, actually. I have to get to the workshop, apparently."

He shoved his glasses further up his face.

"Oh? What for? Are you going in the, in the dummy again? Ohh, please don't say you're going to test again, I-"

The girl giggled slightly, then spoke again. "No idea. I'll be back soon, alright?"

"Um, yeah, that's… fine. I won't move. Not moving another inch, then. Startinnnnggg… now."

She giggled again, before making her way back to the workshop.


	7. Chapter 7, Generator

"So, what's the problem, then?"

GLaDOS was in her workshop, she knew that much, but _where?_ She said she needed help with… something.

 _"_ _See for yourself."_

It was now that Chell noticed the little cylindrical object, flying into the wall from around the corner. She simply stood and watched as it flew around the place, tipping things over wherever it went.

GLaDOS, on the other hand, was standing with a slim piece of see-through plastic in front of her, slowly approaching the small, black and white object.

"What's that?" The girl said, walking towards the android.

 _"_ _It's my attempt at black hole power."_ She answered, as said machine flew right past her head.

 _"_ _And it's gone rouge."_

"…Clearly."

 _"_ _Stop asking questions and help me catch it."_

"Wait, so we're trying to _catch_ a- Ow!" The generator bounced right into her chest, essentially knocking the wind out of her in surprise.

 _"_ _Acrylic. Grab one. You'll need it."_ The android pointed to a stack of clear plastic sheets behind her.

"Right." She grabbed one of the sheets from the stack, and held it in front of her face. Deciding it should be big enough, she started wielding it like a shield, an rand towards the rogue generator. Which was now stuck in a ceiling fan.

"I think it's stuck? Hold on; do you still have those springy things on your legs?"

 _"_ _Aerial faith augments, but yes."_

"Just… jump up and grab it."

The android raised up about two inches, then launched off into the ceiling. One particularly helpful ceiling panel came down for her to stand on. Holding on to the panel's arm, GLaDOS reached over to the ceiling fan.

"Almost there…"

And it promptly flew away. Again.

The android let out a tired sigh. _"This is going to take ages."_

"…It doesn't have to!" The test subject picked up one of the Matter Manipulator devices, and held it up in the air. Evidently, GLaDOS had been working on these, since it looked a lot more like the portal gun; much more sleek and refined.

 _"_ _It's still a prototype."_

"Well, time to test it, then!"

The girl took a metal housing off a workbench, presumably a camera's. After figuring the generator, as small as it was, _should_ fit in there easily, she pointed her newly acquired Matter Manipulator device at it, setting the coordinates.

 _"_ _That… might actually work."_

The little device continued to bounce around the room, nearly hitting the android (again) in the process.

 _"_ _Wait."_

The girl turned to face GLaDOS.

 _"_ _You know what happens when you miss, right?"_

"Don't worry. I've got plenty of experience with aiming. Thanks for that, by the way." She responded, the last bit in pure sarcasm.

 _"_ _My pleasure."_

And she hit the trigger. A small, glowing orange light emitted from the front of the device, much like the portal gun. The light hit the airborne generator, and practically swallowed it, before disappearing entirely.

It then reappeared inside the camera casing the test subject was holding tightly in her other hand, preventing it from flying away again.

"Mission complete."

 _"_ _Just deactivate it."_ The android called, now approaching Chell.

"Will do."

She stuck her hand through the top of the casing, right where the camera's 'eye' would be, and switched it off. After a few seconds, it's lights went off, and finally stopped bouncing around like a chicken on steroids.

 _"_ _I'm glad that's over."_

She took the now idle generator off her, as well as the experimental Matter Manipulator device.

"Right. Just put it in a cage or something, next time."

 _"_ _I will. You can leave."_ The android started walking away towards another table, generator in hand.

"You're forgetting something."

A tired sigh escaped the android's synthetic lips. _"Your arm. Just head to the Central AI Chamber, I'll call a repair unit."_

"Good. I'll be off, then."

 _"_ _I thought you only slept at night."_ The android replied, sarcastically.

"No android puns, please."

 _"_ _Then leave."_

"GLaDly."

(STRAIGHT LINE)

The next morning, Chell was… still in her bed. Even though she didn't physically _need_ to sleep, it just felt nice to sleep out once in a while.

On mornings like this, she would just sit there, gazing at the stars outside her window, right in front of her bed.

Most days, she wouldn't stay in her 'room' for long; there was loads to do anywhere else. She didn't even _have_ much of an 'apartment', like everyone else. No kitchen, no living room. Just her bedroom, with the giant windows in front. She didn't like dining alone, she just went to a public place every day, accompanied by other people.

Well, after being debatably alone in an underground testing facility with no memories of your past, no one would choose to be alone.

Except on these days. Just… her and the stars, the Earth, the sun, and _wait what is that?_

The girl shot up. There was _something_ outside of there. It couldn't be a shooting star; Wheatley had told her all about those, him being the unwilling expert about it, and it sure didn't look like one. It was moving, though.

She couldn't zoom in at it, either. Never bothered to install 'zoom-able' eyes, it just seemed a bit… weird to her to do so.

Wait, is it approaching her now? Yes, it definitely is. She started panicking now; she knew aliens existed, for a fact. Some even claimed to have seen them, up in the sky. The camera footage proved them wrong, though. Mostly shooting stars. But this wasn't one.

The test subject studied it, tried to recognize it as it came closer. It was… white, and slim. It came closer, and closer to the window Chell was now standing in front of, when it hit her.

It was an android. An android, floating through the oxygen-less space.

It was GLaDOS.


	8. Chapter 8, Power

**[A/N]**

 **Well, that took a while.**

 **These chapters do seem to be much longer than they were in Humanoid. Does take a bit longer to write, but hey; quality over quantity.**

 **Reviews are** ** _greatly_** **appreciated, and enjoy today's chapter!**

* * *

Chell's face turned to one of confusion as she looked out of her front window, only to see two yellow optics staring back at her. It couldn't be GLaDOS, could it? Every android required oxygen in order to function, so being in the endless vacuum of space without a helmet was deadly.

She hurried to the airlock at the left side of the room, and pushed the button for it to open. Once it did, instead of stepping into the transporter beam, the girl opened the little hatch in the wall, revealing a white, glass helmet, a small oxygen tank, and behind all of that; a long rope.

The test subject hurriedly strapped the oxygen tank onto her back, along with the rope, and lowered the helmet over her head. She then proceeded to press the red button inside the small storage space where the helmet had been, and prepared to be sucked out.

Once the airlock seal opened up, as expected, she got sucked out of the room pretty fast. Holding onto the rope, she didn't get too far, and kicked off of the side of her free-floating room, propelling her forward.

When the girl looked up, though, she saw that GLaDOS, despite the situation, wasn't panicking. Trading this off as one of her natural expressions, she then tried to pull her into her room, where there was oxygen.

This, against her expectations, resulted only in her yanking her arm back.

A confused expression formed on the test subject's face. Why did she do _that?_ She shouldn't be able to survive in outer space without oxygen, because-

Can't she?

Her expression changed from one of confusion to one of understanding. It was then that a grin appeared on GLaDOS' face, knowing she accomplished what she had probably planned all along.

The generator was working.

* * *

"How did you manage to get it to work?"

 _"_ _Please, don't make me explain. I've already wasted_ enough _time on that generator, don't make me add another hour or two."_

The two were in GLaDOS' workshop, which was an utter _mess_ at this point. The android had spent the entire night working on the black hole project, and didn't bother to clean it up at the time.

"Right. So, with that thing you can spend however long you want, in space?"

 _"_ _Theoretically, yes."_

"Then… can I have one?"

The AI chuckled. _"…You'll have to make your own."_ She slid off the table she was previously sitting on top of. _"Good luck."_

"Hold on; you're the one with the soldering iron in your arm, how am I going to do this?"

 _"_ _There are manual tools."_ The android pointed at a thermal discouragement beam emitter on an adjustable arm in the ceiling.

"Come on, I'm the one with the _brain damage,_ and besides, that thing looks like it weighs a ton!"

 _"_ _In fact, it does."_

"See? You know what, let's strike a deal. I'll get your black hole thing from manufacturing, and you can go make the casings for it. Deal?"

 _"…_ _Will that stop you from nagging?"_

"Obviously."

 _"_ _Deal."_

* * *

The manufacturing wing of Aperture had always been difficult to navigate. Traversing it when it was underground was difficult enough, even _with_ someone to guide you through.

Traversing the maze that is manufacturing, when it was broken up into smaller pieces whilst _floating in space,_ was a nightmare.

Sure, she had a map, but maps aren't worth much in a place that keeps on orbiting around itself, essentially changing its entire layout every few hours.

Eventually, the girl found herself walking around in turret manufacturing, searching for another transport beam, when she found someone.

A male figure, looking like he just got out of a coal mine, sat in front of a turret assembly box, admiring it.

"Andrew?" She called.

Andrew was the sort of person that enjoyed technology, especially the big stuff. Waking up one day in a giant, futuristic space station orbiting around Earth, filled with complicated machinery, _whilst being an android himself,_ of course seemed like a dream to him.

And thus, after finding out there was an entire district dedicated to manufacturing, he instantly fell in love with the place. GLaDOS said that she often encountered him here, just walking around, mesmerized by everything around him.

He turned to face Chell, confused. "Hey! What brings you 'ere, Chell?"

Andrew had a weird way of pronouncing her name. _Shell,_ it sounded like. Sometimes she'd forget he was addressing her in a conversation.

He stood up. He wasn't very tall, being just an inch or two taller than she was.

"I just needed to get something. Do you happen to know where the portal gun line is?"

"Yea, I do; 's floatin' over in that direction." He pointed somewhere behind her. "Funny story, I almost got sucked into the big hole in the middle! Never doin' that again, I'll tell ya."

"Right. Actually, can you help me with something?"

The girl knew that she had to take one of the portal devices apart _somehow,_ and, lacking the strength, she simply couldn't do that on her own. Being the tech enthusiast that he was, he always carried a two small screwdrivers with him. It seemed that he enjoyed taking stuff apart a little _too_ much; he once purposefully broke his left arm, just so he could get a replacement one to take apart.

"Sure thing, what'd'ya need me to do?"

* * *

"Man, it's feels like Christmas!"

Andrew was sitting on a catwalk, wielding a screwdriver currently halfway stuck inside a portal gun. Chell managed to catch one of them before it fell into the incinerator. After finding that the black hole containment cylinder was intact, she handed it to Andrew to try and break it free.

Andrew was banned from touching the portal devices, considering they could explode and all. Now that he had permission to _carefully_ take one apart, he was, needless to say, overly excited.

Chell was standing next to him, feeling like a parent supervising a child.

"Don't get _too_ excited, I still need to tube intact."

It did end up taking a while, considering Andrew stopped to study every single little thing he scooped out of the casing. When he finally managed to break free the small, clear tube, Chell suggested to throw the leftovers into the incinerator. But, Andrew insisted upon keeping everything; broken or not. He wasn't going to get another chance like this anytime soon, so, naturally, he decided to make the most out of it.

After both finding their way back out of the manufacturing wing, Andrew went straight back to his apartment to add his findings to his collection. He actually stored a surprising amount of technology in there, some broken, some still functional. He was planning to learn as much as he could about the technology in New Aperture, and he was pretty far down the line in that concern.

The girl went straight back to the workshop, looking forward to… well, being in space, essentially. In the transport funnel, she was going over the possibilities.

Without need for a helmet, or an entire suit, for that matter, space travel was going to be a whole lot easier. And how about portals? You could travel to the other side of the _universe_ just by simply stepping into one.

Having arrived at the workshop's airlock, the test subject pressed the red button on the wall, opening the door in front of her.

"Hey, _G!_ I got the black hole!" She called. GLaDOS was on the other side of the room, halfway inside a sort of box.

She climbed out of the giant box-thing. _"Please don't call me that."_

"Catch!" The girl threw the cylindrical container towards GLaDOS, who easily caught it. She then walked over to her, almost tripping over a bit of machinery sprawled across the floor.

 _"_ _You know how everyone on this station needs one of these generators?"_

"…Now that you mention it. That's going to take a _long_ time."

 _"_ _It doesn't have to."_ A wide grin appeared on the android's face, as she took the glass container, and stuck it into an open hole on the box she was practically inside of, earlier.

After a few seconds, the whole box lit up, revealing five metal arms inside; three, thin, orange ones, and two blue ones on either side. It highly resembled one of the turret manufacturing boxes from the manufacturing wing.

The mechanical arms then started to pick up small pieces of metal, which were helpfully deposited on the bottom. The parts were very quickly screwed together, held up by the two blue arms.

The glass cylinder with the black hole inside got picked up, too. Chell watched as everything got pieced together around it with mechanical precision. When it was finished, the newly made generator was boxed up, and promptly dropped. The lights went off, and the whole box shut down.

"...How did you do that in twenty minutes?"

 _"_ _I just took one of the turret assembly boxes and modified it. Easy, really. Now we just need to install it in manufacturing."_

"How are we going to do that?"

 _"_ _The whole manufacturing wing runs on an automated system. It's terribly annoying sometimes, but it just means that I don't have to run it myself. It should take care of it automatically."_

"I don't think this'll fit inside of the transport funnel."

The AI hefted a Matter Manipulator device off of the floor. It was one of the newer ones, which were currently used in testing. Just like the portal gun, they worked fine, even though they were technically still in the testing stage.

"…Oh."

GLaDOS fired the device at the assembly box, which then disappeared. The boxed-up generator was still on the floor, though.

 _"_ _There."_

The AI picked it up, and unboxed it again.

"Can you install it?"

The android's face assumed a menacing grin; this couldn't be good.

 _"_ _With pleasure."_

 _/Shutdown_Imminent/_

And the world went black.


End file.
